Hoss has run hot and cold with the shoe thing. At his first ride last year, he pulled his right front shoe. Twice. He pulled it on the first loop, and I got it replaced at the vet check. I don't think we got five miles back out on the trail before he had the replacement off. He finished the ride and vetted out just fine, although it was clear the foot was a little sore. Since then, I think he's lost one or the other front shoe at least four more times. It's aggravating. It's frustrating. It doesn't reflect well on his farrier.
I think a number of my clients will find it refreshing that I have problems with my own horse, too. All the time I spend getting their horses "dialed in" so that they're going well, not stepping off shoes or stepping on themselves seems a little more justifiable. At least one of my clients with a chronic shoe puller feels bad about getting me out to replace lost shoes. No matter how much I reassure him that it's my job to keep the durned shoes on, he just persists in not calling me. I can think of other clients, though, who will find the idea that I can't seem to keep my own horse reliably shod shocking.
A few months ago, I decided to try taking Hoss barefoot again. That was a mistake. He was utterly miserable. Even in the pasture he was lame. He was lame just standing still. I lasted a week before I nailed a set of shoes back on him. Experiment over. He'll wear shoes the rest of his life, in all likelihood. I just don't have what it takes to watch him suffer through toughening his feet back up. There's absolutely nothing wrong with barefoot. I like barefoot. I just can't watch my horse endure the process when I know all I have to do to relieve his discomfort is nail on shoes.
For the most part, I have shod Hoss with Billy Crothers concave shoes. This has worked splendidly for him. At one point, I did use a set of St. Croix rim shoes, but they wore out pretty fast. Recently, though, I've decided I need to play with the shoes a little bit.
At the Git-R-Done ride in April, Hoss had a tough time in the deep sand areas that are so foreign to him. He must have tripped every 50 steps or so while trotting. At one point, he tripped so hard he nearly went down on his knees, throwing me halfway out of the saddle and nearly ending our ride right there. Other riders with us gasped and asked if I was okay and if Hoss was okay. He answered for himself by continuing on with nary a bad step. Once he took about three bad steps, but I think that was a trip over a rock rather than over his own toe.
It doesn't bother Hoss in the least to trip. He just gets his feet back under him and keeps going. I suspect that if he cared about tripping, he would've found a way to knock it off. But he doesn't care. He was more apt to trip if he was distracted by another horse. I felt like I spent the entire ride twiching the reins to keep his head in the perfect position. If he turned his head slightly, or lowered it below his withers, he'd trip. The only places he didn't trip were when we were on hard surfaces, areas that were in short supply at this particular ride. At one point we were on about 2 miles of paved road. He wanted to stay on the blacktop, and I just let him. He never tripped, not even once, on that surface.
So the last time I shod my horses, I put St. Croix X-tras on Hoss. This shoe has less traction than the Billys, but is wider. My thinking was that, to go over sandy areas, he needs more "float." The wider shoes keep his foot more on the surface of sand than the Billys do. I wanted to get a sense, though, of how he would do with less traction and more width. It hasn't gone well. He doesn't like these shoes much at all. Going over rock faces, he slips. As the shoeing cycle passes, he's been increasingly tentative and his strides have been shorter during the period he's had these shoes on. Not only that, but less than five weeks into a six week cycle, his shoes are worn out. The Billy Crothers shoes are thicker, and therefore last longer.
At this point I've decided he needs to be back in the Billys. I ordered two sets of shoes. They are a wider shoe than the ones we were using before. I think that having the wider shoe will help Hoss go over deep sand, but having the traction will return him to a happier state.
We did shoes this past week. Unfortunately, the shoes I had ordered didn't quite make it. I got the wider fronts I was looking for, but not the hinds. So I had to shoe Hoss with the wider fronts and the regular hinds. The fronts look very good on him. I got him shoes with clips, which help hold the shoe in place and take some of the stress off the nails. Since the hinds I wanted didn't come, I don't have clips on his hind feet. It sure would've been pretty if he did! Also, the regular width Billys are just a hair too small for his hind feet, making it hard to get a good fit that will last for six weeks.
We will see how this works. I have high hopes. If they do work, though, there's one minor problem: I ordered these shoes on closeout! I need to find out from the supplier if that means that I won't ever be able to get them again. If they work, I may have to buy every pair the supplier has and hope I can find something else that'll work as well before I run out!
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